Prime Minister's Office
English rendering of PM’s address at the National Panchayati Raj Day in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh
Bharat Mata ki – Jai!
Bharat Mata ki – Jai!
Governor of Madhya Pradesh Shri Mangubhai Patel, Chief Minister Shivraj ji, my colleagues in the Union Cabinet, Giriraj ji, heading the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, MLAs, MPs, all other dignitaries, and my dear brothers and sisters gathered here in large numbers,
I bow down to Maa Vindhyavasini from this historical land of Rewa. This land belongs to the brave; it belongs to those who are ever ready to sacrifice for the country. I have come among you at Rewa countless times. And I have always been receiving your abundant love and affection. Even today, all of you have come in such a large number to bless us. I express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you. Best wishes to all of you, to more than 2.5 lakh Panchayats of the country, on the National Panchayati Raj Day. Today, along with you, more than 30 lakh Panchayat representatives are also connected with us virtually. This is certainly a very commanding picture of India's democracy. All of us are the representatives of the people. All of us are dedicated to this country, to this democracy. Our scope of work may be different, but the goal is the same – from public service to service towards the nation. I am happy that our Panchayats are implementing all the schemes made by the Central Government to make life easier for the rural poor.
Brothers and sisters,
Your work is going to be easier with the new system that has been launched here today by combining e-Gram Swaraj and GeM portal. Property cards have also been given to 35 lakh rural families of the country under the PM Svamitva Yojana. Today, the foundation stone and inauguration of projects worth more than 17,000 crore rupees related to the development of Madhya Pradesh have also taken place. These include railway projects, pucca houses for the poor and water related projects. I also congratulate all of you for these projects which make life easier for the rural poor and generate employment.
Friends,
All of us have dreamed of a developed India in this ‘Amrit Kaal’ of independence and are working day and night to fulfil it. To make India developed, it is necessary to develop the social system of the villages of India. To make India developed, it is necessary to develop the economic system of the villages of India. To make India developed, it is also necessary to develop the Panchayati system of the villages of India. Keeping this in mind, our government is continuously working to strengthen the Panchayati Raj system of the country. Today the villagers as well as the people across the country are witnessing how we are empowering the Panchayats and improving the facilities in the Panchayats as opposed to discrimination by the previous governments.
Before 2014, the Finance Commission's grant for Panchayats was less than Rs 70,000 crore. Will you remember the figure? If you say something, only then will I know that you will remember. Before 2014, it was less than 70,000 crores. How could so many Panchayats in such a huge country be able to discharge their duties with such a small amount? After the formation of our government in 2014, this grant to the Panchayats has been increased from 70,000 crore rupees to more than two lakh crore rupees. You can see the difference. Now you can imagine how we work. Let me give you two more examples. In the 10 years before 2014, only around 6,000 Panchayat Bhawans were built with the help of the Central Government. About 6,000 Panchayat Bhawans were built in the whole country! Our government has constructed more than 30,000 new Panchayat Bhawans within eight years. Now this figure will also tell you how dedicated we are towards the villages.
The previous government had also started a scheme to provide optical fibre to Gram Panchayats. But under that scheme, less than 70, not even 100, Gram Panchayats of the country were connected with optical fibre. That too in the nearby Panchayats on the outskirts of the cities! It is our government, which has provided optical fibre to more than two lakh Panchayats of the country. The difference is clear, friends. I do not want to go into the details of how the post-independence governments destroyed India's Panchayati Raj system. The system which existed hundreds of years, thousands of years before independence, the same Panchayati Raj system was not trusted after independence. Respected Bapu used to say that the soul of India resides in the villages. But the Congress ignored Gandhi's views as well. In the nineties, some formalities were done in the name of the Panchayati Raj, but still the Panchayats were not paid the attention they deserved.
Friends,
Since 2014, the country has taken up the cause of empowerment of its Panchayats. And today its results are visible. Today, Panchayats of India are emerging as the lifeblood of the development of villages. Gram Panchayat Development Plan is being worked out so that Gram Panchayats should develop the villages according to the requirements.
Friends,
We are also continuously reducing the gap between villages and cities with the help of Panchayats. In this era of digital revolution, Panchayats are also being made smart. Today, technology is being used extensively at the Panchayat level from planning to implementation. For example, you are doing so much for the construction of Amrit Sarovars. A lot of technology has been used at every level from choosing the place for these Amrit Sarovars to their completion. Today, the e-Gram Swaraj - GeM Integrated Portal has also been launched. This will make the process of procurement through Panchayats simple and transparent. The Panchayats will now be able to buy goods at a lower price and local small industries will also get a powerful medium to sell their goods. Be it tricycles for Divyangs or items related to the education of the children, everything will be easily available to the Panchayats on this portal.
Brothers and sisters,
We can also see another advantage of modern technology in the PM Svamitva Yojana. There was a lot of confusion regarding the property papers of the houses in the villages. As a result, it leads to disputes and there is a possibility of illegal possession as well. Now all these problems are being resolved with the PM Svamitva Yojana. Today, surveys are being conducted in every village with drone technology and maps are being prepared. On the basis of this, legal documents are being handed over to the people without any discrimination. So far, property cards have been given to 75,000 villages across the country. And I am happy that the Government of Madhya Pradesh is doing a very commendable job in this regard.
Friends,
Many times I wonder why the people of Chhindwara, whom you trusted for a long time, remained so indifferent towards your development, towards the development of this area. The answer lies in the thinking of some political parties. The party, which ran the governments for the longest time after independence, shattered the trust of our villages. The people, schools, roads, electricity, storage places, rural economy, were the least priorities of the government during the Congress rule.
Brothers and sisters,
The country cannot progress by giving step-motherly treatment to the villages where more than half of the country's population lives. Therefore, when you gave us the opportunity to serve the country in 2014, we gave top priority to the economy of the villages, the facilities in the villages and the interests of the people of the villages. The 10 crore gas connections that were given under the Ujjwala scheme were given to the people of the villages only. Under our government, more than 3.75 crore houses for the poor have been built across the country, out of which more than three crore houses have been built in the villages. And importantly, our sisters, daughters and mothers have ownership rights in most of these houses. There was such a tradition in our country that a house was in the name of a man, a shop was in the name of a man, a car was in the name of a man, a farm was in the name of a man. There was nothing in the name of women. We have changed this practice and our mothers, sisters and daughters became the owners.
Friends,
The BJP government has made crores of women of the country the owners of the house. And do you know that in today's time every PM Awas house is worth more than one lakh rupees. It means the BJP has made crores of sisters in the country as ‘lakhpati’ sisters. I bow down to all these ‘lakhpati’ sisters and request them to bless us so that millions more sisters become ‘lakhpati’ in the country. Today itself, four lakh people have entered into their pucca houses here. And a large number of them are ‘lakhpati’ sisters. I congratulate everyone.
Friends,
Most of the 2.5 crore households that got electricity under the PM Saubhagya scheme are from villages. They are my brothers and sisters living in villages. Our government has also started the Har Ghar Jal Yojana for the villagers. Due to this scheme, more than nine crore rural families of the country have started getting tap water at home in just three-four years. In MP too, only 13 lakh families living in villages used to get tap water. I am quoting this figure during the rule of the previous governments. Today, tap water has started reaching about 60 lakh houses in the villages of MP. And your district has become 100 percent in this regard.
Friends,
Earlier the people of our villages were not considered to have any right over the country's banks. Most of the people in the villages neither had bank accounts nor did they get any facilities from banks. Since they did not have bank accounts, the money sent to the poor was pilfered midway. Our government has completely changed this situation. We opened bank accounts of more than 40 crore people of the villages under the Jan Dhan Yojana. We increased the reach of banks to villages using post offices through India Post Payments Bank. We made lakhs of Bank Mitras and trained Bank Sakhis. Today its effect is visible in every village of the country. When the villages of the country got the benefit of banks, the people of the villages were helped in everything from farming to business.
Friends,
The earlier governments also committed great injustice to the villages of India. Earlier governments avoided spending money for the villages. Since the village was not a vote bank, they were ignored. Many political parties were promoting their self-interest by dividing the people of the villages. The Bharatiya Janata Party has also ended this injustice with the villages. Our government also opened the vault for the development of villages. More than 3.5 lakh crore rupees are being spent on the Har Ghar Jal Yojana. Lakhs of crores of rupees are also being spent on the PM Awas Yojana. One lakh crore rupees are being spent to complete the irrigation projects which were stalled for decades. Thousands of crores of rupees are also being spent on the PM Gramin Sadak Yojana. Even under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, the government has sent about 2.5 lakh crore rupees directly to the bank accounts of the farmers. In MP also, about 90 lakh farmers have also received Rs 18500 crore under this scheme. The farmers of Rewa have also received around Rs 500 crore from this fund. Thousands of crores of rupees have reached the villages in addition after our government increased the MSP of several food grains. In this period of Corona, our government has been giving free ration to the poor living in the villages for the last three years. More than three lakh crore rupees is being spent on this scheme for the welfare of the poor.
Friends,
When so many development works are undertaken in the villages, when so much money is spent, then employment opportunities are also created in the villages. In order to speed up the employment and self-employment in the villages, the Central Government is also running the Mudra Yojana to provide work to the people of the villages in the villages itself. Under the Mudra Yojana, people have been given assistance of Rs 24 lakh crores in the past few years. As a result, crores of people have started their business in the villages also. Our sisters, daughters and mothers are also the biggest beneficiaries of the Mudra Yojana. How our government's schemes are empowering women in villages, empowering women economically, it is the topic of discussion everywhere today. In the last nine years, nine crore women have joined self-help groups. Here in Madhya Pradesh too, more than 50 lakh women are associated with self-help groups. In our government, every self-help group is being given a loan of up to Rs 20 lakh without bank guarantee. Women are now handling many small scale industries. The state government has also made Didi Cafe in every district. In the last Panchayat elections, about 17,000 sisters associated with self-help groups were elected as Panchayat representatives. This in itself is a matter of great pride. I once again congratulate the women power of Madhya Pradesh for this feat.
Friends,
Today, the campaign for inclusive development has also started here in the Amrit Mahotsav of Independence. This is going to strengthen the spirit of ‘Sabka Prayas’  to build a developed India. Every Panchayat, representative of every institution and every citizen of the country will have to unite for a developed India. This is possible only when every basic facility reaches 100% beneficiaries expeditiously, without any discrimination. The role of all the Panchayat representatives is very important in this regard.
Brothers and sisters,
There is also a need to run an awareness campaign by the Panchayats about the new arrangements related to agriculture. Today, work is in progress on a very wide scale in the country regarding natural farming. Here also, there has been a discussion about the disadvantages of chemical farming. We saw how our daughters informed all of us about the suffering of Mother Earth. They have used plays to convey to us the pain of Mother Earth. These daughters have explained to everyone in a very simple way the harm being done to Mother Earth due to chemical farming. We all have to understand this call of the earth. We do not have the right to kill our mother. This earth is our mother. We have no right to kill that mother. I urge that our Panchayats should run a public awareness campaign regarding natural farming. Panchayats have a huge role in the campaigns being run by the Central Government to help small farmers, cattle herders and fishermen. When you get involved in every development related activity, the collective efforts of the nation will get strengthened. This will become the energy for building a developed India in ‘Amrit Kaal’.
Friends,
Today, the foundation stone and inauguration of many projects giving new impetus to the development of Madhya Pradesh has taken place on the Panchayati Raj Day. The electrification of Chhindwara-Nainpur-Mandla Fort rail line will further ease the connectivity of the people of this region to Delhi-Chennai and Howrah-Mumbai. It will also be of great benefit to our tribal brothers and sisters. Today new trains have also started from Chhindwara to Nainpur. These new trains will help many towns and villages to connect directly to their district headquarters Chhindwara, Seoni. With the help of these trains, it will also be easy to go to Nagpur and Jabalpur. The new Rewa-Itwari-Chhindwara train that has started today will also connect Seoni and Chhindwara directly with Nagpur. This entire region is very famous for its wildlife. The increasing connectivity here will also increase tourism and create new employment opportunities. Farmers, students, daily passengers of railways, small businessmen and shopkeepers will be greatly benefited by this. That is, the double engine government has doubled your happiness today.
Friends,
Today I want to thank you for one more issue. Shivraj ji has described in great detail about the completion of 100 episodes of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ this Sunday. It is because of your blessings, affection and contribution that ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has reached this position today. I have mentioned the achievements of many people of Madhya Pradesh in my ‘Mann Ki Baat’. I have been receiving lakhs of letters and messages from the people here. I am eagerly waiting to meet you again this Sunday in ‘Mann Ki Baat’. Because it is a century, isn't it? And the century has its own importance in our country. Do join me on Sunday like you do every time. With this request, I end my speech. Once again, I wish you all a very happy Panchayati Raj Day. Thank you very much!
Bharat Mata ki – Jai!
Bharat Mata ki – Jai!
Bharat Mata ki – Jai!
DISCLAIMER: This is the approximate translation of PM’s speech. Original speech was delivered in Hindi.